1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of visual representation of information for human decision making. In particular, the present invention relates to the field of displaying information spatially in concentric rings such that selected attributes of the information are visually distinguished. In further particularity, the present invention relates to the field of displaying time orderable data such as television programs available for viewing in a time ordered spatial arrangement of concentric rings, each available program in a ring being visually distinguishable over other available time orderable data in that ring based on a user's preferences such as a user's television program viewing preferences.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current so-called recommender systems use user profiles to generate viewing recommendations depending on who is using the system, e.g. who is watching television. These recommender systems display viewing choices available to the user in numerous ways.
A presentation of recommendations of time orderable options from a set of selectable options wherein certain of the options may be more preferable to a user than others based on the user's preferences. The presentation uses option data including attributes, the option data attributes have descriptions of the option data with a time of availability of each option datum. The user profile provides attributes describing option selection preferences for a user, the option selection preferences includes the user's recommendation preferences for one or more option data, and visual display preferences for option data matching the user's recommendation preferences. A data store contains the profile and the option data. A match is made with a first predetermined set of profile attributes comprising the user's recommendation preferences to a corresponding first set of option data attributes. A display of concentric rings is used as a selector to displays option data that has been modified, the selector is programmed to a second predetermined set of option data attributes to correspond to a second predetermined set of profile attributes comprising the user's visual display preferences for each option datum matched.
In some prior art, currently available programming is displayed such as in a sub-picture, often referred to as “picture-in-a-picture.” U.S. Pat. No. 5,818,541 issued to Matsuura et al. is illustrative. In Matsuura '541, a television enters into a program scanning mode and sequentially displays a plurality of images that show available programming. U.S. Pat. No. 6,147,714 issued to Terasawa et al is similar and allows for selection of a desired option from a set of reduced-sized still pictures of program viewing options. There is no teaching or suggestion in either patent to show program selection options for more than the currently available programming, user preferences, or ordering of options using the user preferences.
Some prior art recognizes that users may have preferences about the options available to them. U.S. Pat. No. 6,172,674 issued to Etheredge is illustrative. In Etheredge '674, a television viewer can access and interact with television scheduling information using an electronic program guide that uses a grid to show channels, titles, and show times. The guide can filter the data prior to display but will only display data that meets certain filter criteria. There is no suggestion or teaching in Etheredge '674 to arrange the data in concentric rings, time order the data by the rings, or allow for multiple users, each having a predetermined set of option selection preferences.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,009 issued to Ohkura et al. is further illustrative of menu systems for presenting television viewing option guides. In Ohkura '009, program viewing choices are displayed in a tabular format.
One method of displaying options to a user is referred to as a “tunnel” interface comprising concentric rings of displayed data, each ring representing a different set of attributes. The recommender systems of the prior art that use such tunnel interfaces order the program data in each ring, as well as the rings themselves, by a weighting system wherein recommendations having higher “weights” or “scores” appear on outer rings while those with lower weights appear on successively diminished inner rings.
A problem with tunnel interfaces is that the user can become disoriented with respect to the time element of the program data being displayed. These recommendations do not account for a time dimension, e.g. having the time that the program is available for viewing spatially consistent with other programs of that same time and spatially different from other programs in other time frames. Moreover, it is possible that a given set of programs available for viewing at the same time may appear in different concentric rings.